


The Final Blow

by warpedwars



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy - Fandom, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Death, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), I WANT TO CRY, Major Spoilers, Major character death - Freeform, Other, Peter has PTSD, Post-Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, don't read if you haven't seen GOTG Vol. 2, yondu deserved better, yondu is peter's real daddy, yondu leaves a message for peter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-28 22:43:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10840992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warpedwars/pseuds/warpedwars
Summary: "Listen, boy.. I ain't gettin' out of this alive. Not this time. But thats okay. You're gonna be okay. And that's all I need damnit."orYondu records a message for Peter before his untimely death. It's fair to say that Peter is more than grateful to hear his voice again.





	The Final Blow

**Author's Note:**

> I loved Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, I adored it with all my heart. I didn't think I could fall in love with James Gunn's adaption of the characters more than I already have— but I did. I cried and I laughed, and from those tears and laughs, this fic was born.
> 
> You're welcome. Feel free to leave a comment below.

Peter loved his family. They were already messes individually, and made an even bigger mess whenever they were put in the same quadrant as each other. Sure, the group was made of assassians and thieves, but he couldn't have asked for any better. He cherished them the way he imagined Yondu privately cherished Peter: always annoyed but grateful it was always them annoying him. Even when a certain ~~trash panda~~ raccoon decided that stealing batteries from a race of perfected beings just to spite them was a practical joke. (Peter never admitted that he sometimes laughed thinking about it, despite himself.)

Yondu's death, his real dad's death, was a reoccuring nightmare that Peter could never seem to shake off. Whenever Peter woke up screaming in the middle of the night, begging and even crying for Yondu to not give up his own life, no one ever blamed him. Especially Kraglin, because he understood Peter's pain in a way that the other Guardians couldn't. He knew Yondu, perhaps even better than Peter did. And sometimes, Kraglin woke up screaming too.

One particular night, Peter's nightmare felt too real.

_He watches with knitted brows as Yondu pushes the space suit onto Peter's chest, and then Peter realises his intentions. 'No,' he tries to say, but the words don't come out. "You're gonna let me die, boy? After all I did for you? I raised you, like my own flesh n' blood!" Yondu says, shaking Peter fiercely as he digs his yellow nails into Peter's arms. His skin is peeling away, and the shaking gets weaker. "You owe me, boy! I'm dyin'.. I'm dead because of you!" He screams, spitting in Peter's face despite his once blue skin was now more white and scaley if anything._

_'Please...' Peter tries to beg, but his voice is inaudible again. His hands are trembling as he clings onto Yondu's ravager jacket, a jacket that Peter has never seen him take off once in his life. "I treated you like a son," Yondu's voice was weaker, and scratchier. Just how it had been before he died for real, too. Peter has tears in his eyes; despite the space suit, he can't breathe. Yondu is barely moving, and the light that once sparked the unusual colour in his eyes seemed to fade altogether._

_He grips Peter by his collar one last time, pale hands gripping as hard as he can as he breathes on Peter's face. The Guardian can make out every little wrinkle and scale growing on Yondu's skin. He can barely stand the sight. For a moment, he thinks of giving Yondu his space suit. Maybe they'd be even, then. And Peter can shout from the stars about how he saved his life, and how 'you're alive because of me!'_

_But his hands wouldn't bother to make a single move. Peter wanted to throw up, feeling Yondu's last breath against his skin. The older man's mouth makes a final twitch as Peter loses his grip, and Yondu floats out into space. Peter tries desperately to reach out and grab him, but all he can do is stare. He can feel tears staining his cheeks, but his hands forbid moving to wipe them away_.

_The stars twinkle, and seem to embrace Peter's father with open arms, expecting him. 'Please, please, please, don't go. Yondu, please don't go.' He can't do anything, he can't stop it. He wishes he could just stop it. Yondu painfully hisses his final words as tears stain Peter's face. They're almost too quiet, but somehow Peter hears them as clear as Terra's day. "And you let me die."_

"NO. NO. Stop it! Come back! Please, come back!" Peter wakes up with sweat glistening his skin, and sobs racking his body. He springs into action, sitting up on his bed instantly with screams itching his throat and filling his ears. He didn't know that a human could make such a horrific sound without being burned alive. He's gripping onto something, and he doesn't realise it's the infamous Zune that he never lets leave his sight until he hears the start of a new song playing.

_Here come old flat top, he come groovin' up slowly._

"Come Together, The Beatles, 1969." he can hear someone say. Peter then realises that the headphones aren't plugged in. He looks up from his bedsheets and squints up, meeting eyes with Kraglin, someone who meant something to Yondu too, although Peter was never exactly sure what that something was.

Peter could recall the day he first met the man; he had a significantly less amount amount of gray hair decorating his head and beard, and his eyes were less tired along with his skin less wrinkled. He hadn't changed much, other than that. He was still as understanding as he was with Peter as the day he first met him. "You know this song?" Peter raised a brow, then hurriedly wiped his face to disguise his previous fit, not taking into consideration that his eyes were still red and puffy anyways.

"Yondu brings in a strange Terran object because it 'reminded him of you and your stupid, loud music', and you think I wouldn't be curious enough to check it out?" He can see the smirk twisting Kraglin's expression through the distant glow the galaxy seemed to provide through the window view. The expression, for a second, was a bit sad. But the flicker of emotions was so brief anyone else could have missed it, and Peter spared Kraglin the trouble of talking about his own feelings.

Peter chuckles with amusement, shaking his own head. "That sounds like him, too. 'C'mon, boy! You got better things to be doin' then listening to that Sam Cook nonsense. I'll wack ya with my fin if you don't get to work!' Yondu, Peter remembered silently, never did wack him with his fin. He knew the insult had been an empty promise from the start, which still made Peter smile. The old goof couldn't have bothered to do such a thing to Peter. He had known what it was like to have parents who didn't give a rat's ass about him, and he wouldn't give the same experience to Peter.

Kraglin's smirk shifts to a warm smile, but it leaves his lips as soon as it's concieved. "He was a character, that Yondu." Peter makes a hum of agreement, and Kraglin speaks again before he can. "Are you okay, Peter?" The Guardian can't seem to know what to make of these particular words, so he stays silent for a moment.

"They're getting worse," he takes in a sharp breath, not quite feeling himself exhale. Maybe I'm dead, Peter thinks briefly. "I keep seein' myself there with him again. he spent his whole life trying to keep me alive, and I spent my whole life hating him. I never really acknowledged it.. not until.. until he—" _died_. Peter's unspoken word hang in the air, and he can hear Kraglin take a seat next to him. Kraglin sat down on the bed, bouncing Peter off it slightly before the cushion relaxed once more.

Kraglin lightly patted Peter's bare shoulder, a heavy sigh filling his lungs. "He died under his own terms, and he knew you were going to make it out alive, that you were gonna be safe. I think that's what he wanted most of all... other than money. He loved you like his own, Peter."

'I wish I had seen it sooner,' Peter almost said, but he didn't need to say it in order for his words to be understood.

"I have something for you, something I should have shown you the night he died. I guess.. I was so caught up in the comotion of it all that it sort of just.. drifted from my mind at the time." Kraglin pulled out a tablet-like device from behind him, handing it over delicately to Peter. "Press the button," Kraglin said in a hushed tone, the muscles in his shoulders seeming to tighten.

Peter did as he was told, and static filled both their ears.

_And now, the end is near. And so I face, the final curtain.. My friend, I'll say it clear, I'll state my case, of which I'm certain._

"My Way, Frank Sinatra, 1969." Peter muttered half-heartedly, without even completely noticing he had said it.

"Peter? Pe- is this damn thing workin'?"

He could feel Kraglin tense beside him. "Yondu?" Peter whispered, his eyes starting to wet with tears as quick as a storm rained upon a city.

"Listen, boy.. I ain't gettin' out of this alive. Not this time. But thats okay. You're gonna be okay. And that's all I need damnit."

_I've lived a life that's full. I've traveled each, and every highway. But more, much more than this— I did it my way._

"Who knew I'd get here, huh? Savin' your sorry ass again from the same man that coulda' killed you. Now you really owe me! Man, you'da thought that my crew eatin' ya' was bad.. you should see the view from here. It's kinda damn pretty actually.. until I remember that Ego son of a bitch is tryin' to kill me, trying to kill you." Ego, that name used to run shivers down Peter's spine for weeks after the incident. Whenever one of the other Guardians mentioned him, Peter always fell silent. The was a reminder of another failure in Peter's life. Another disappointment.

_Regrets, I've had a few. But then again, too few to mention. I did what I had to do. And saw it through without exemption._

"I guess now's a bit late for an apology letter, but I know I did'ja wrong sometimes boy. I know I was hard on ya', but I was just getting you ready. Life ain't easy, especially to people like us. People who have seen how life can be a son of a bitch. I did what I could to do good by you, Quill. To give you a life Ego was going to take away from you." Peter wanted to scream his throat raw again, throw the device across the room and scream and tell the stars that Yondu didn't have to apologise to Peter. If anything, Peter had to apologise to him. But he couldn't. Not anymore.

_I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway. And more, much more than this— I did it my way._

"I thought we would rule the entire Galaxy, you n' I. Thinkin' of makin' you Captain, once I retired."

_Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew. When I bit off more than I could chew. But through it all, when there was doubt... I ate it up and spit it out._

"I did stupid stuff, raisin' you. Made you feel like you were nothin' but another ravager. But I ain't ever had any respect for those stupid, brainless piles of shit. Only Kraglin ever proved his damn loyalty to me. You were different though, Peter. You weren't just another thief."

_I faced it all and I stood tall.. And did it my way._

"You were my son. You are my son, boy. Don't you ever forget it." Peter clenched his jaw painfully, slouching as he found purchase in the sheets under him. He gripped them as hard as he could.

_I've loved, I've laughed and cried. I've had my fill my share of losing. And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing._

"I'm waitin' for you to knock that Ego into the damn stars so I can save ya' again, and there's such little time left. But I'll catch ya', mark my words. Your life over mine, always."

_To think I did all that. And may I say - not in a shy way. Oh no, oh no, not me. I did it my way._

"Crazy to think I raised ya' all on my damn lonesome, and you came out a lil' messed up but.." he could hear a chuckle, and Peter's heart clenched. He missed that damn laugh. "who hasn't?"

_For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has naught! To say the things he truly feels, and not the words of one who kneels._

"You'll always be mine, boy. Not Ego's, not no one's! You're as close to flesh and blood to me as anyone in my damn life!" His voice was starting to get louder over all the chaos that had ensued at the time, and Peter could hear the urgency in his voice. Yondu had been afraid. "But you're a big boy now. It's time I let'cha go.."

_The record shows I took the blows. And did it my way._

"I hope you gave him hell. I love you, Peter. Goddamnit I love you. Don't you ever think different. Thank y-" the static cut Yondu off, and Peter straightened his spine. "-you. Never forget me, don't ever forget your daddy." Peter would have laughed at the last part, had he not been crying. He turned, and Kraglin shared the same expression. There is no love like a parent's love for their child.

_Yes, it was my way..._

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to let me know if I should write more GOTG stuff ;)) Give me your opinions. Thanks for reading!
> 
> (btw: Sorry if Kraglin seems a little OOC. I don't know his character 100% yet but I'm tryin')


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